DTE Energy to add third customer call center, 100 jobs in Cass City

Project will generate more than 100 full-time, customer service positions

Cass City call center will be the company's third in Michigan

In an effort to improve customer response times, Detroit-based DTE Energy Co. is opening a new call center in early spring that will generate more than 100 full-time, customer service positions.

The Cass City call center, the company's third in Michigan, will be located inside the North Area Energy Center — an existing DTE Energy electric operations facility, DTE spokesman Chris Lamphear said in an email.

The utility company also operates call centers in Detroit and Kentwood and has no immediate plans to open additional call centers aside from the Cass City center, he said.

"While we are remodeling inside the facility to support the new call center, utilizing the existing building allows us to build out our customer service capabilities in a cost effective manner," Lamphear said.

DTE did not disclose how much it is investing in the new call center.

This fall, DTE is hiring and training employees in waves and will hire employees into next year, as necessary, until the center is fully staffed, the release said.

"These jobs will offer great opportunities for our local workforce to build a long-term career with DTE, and spur economic growth in and around Cass City and the Thumb Region," Debbie Powell, village manager for Cass City, said in a news release.

DTE, which serves 2.2 million customers in Southeast Michigan, announced last month that starting in January 2021, the Detroit Zoo's Royal Oak campus will use 10,000 megawatt hours of wind power through the utility company's voluntary renewable-energy program, MIGreenPower.